NJ-based Owel have made strides in the last several months; hot on the heels of the release of their sophomore album dear me, they embarked on a nationwide tour, let their bandmate Jane Park chase a new exciting opportunity, and released B-sides from the dear me recording sessions. Through the early part of 2018, the alt-rock now-quartet have prepared for their upcoming Midwest tour, which will take them through the middle and end of May. After traversing the Rust Belt, the band will return to the eastern states for shows in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Finally, on June 6th, they’ll return home to New Jersey for a homecoming set at The Saint in Asbury Park. If you missed the band’s last NY/NJ show at Pianos in April, mark the Asbury Park show on your calendar; with all that touring energy behind them, you’re sure to see a firecracker of a performance. Prepare yourself by listening to "Too Young To Fall In Love", a single from dear me, below. – Will Sisskind

It starts with a moment of sincerity, the music gentler and more intimate, if only slightly, than the wry post-punk typical of Bodega: “well no one is as salty as the seven seas except me.” But the moment is fleeting. To each of Ben Hozie’s proclamations of individuality in “Jack in Titanic,” he and the band adds “and Jack in Titanic.”  With two previous singles from debut album Endless Scroll and a reputation for propulsive, artistically minded live shows, Bodega has already shown its strengths to be irony, critique, and repurposing. “Jack in Titanic” uses that to the effect of inverting traditional ideas of masculinity as shown by popular cultural: to be handsome, devoted, a good dancer, a good lover. Meanwhile, the video courses out erotic images of computer mouse and cable through a square frame, televisions and cell phones making due appearance—all a part of the digital, media-driven world Bodega is commenting on, the Endless Scroll. You can watch the video for “Jack in Titanic” below. Endless Scroll is out June 1 via What’s Your Rupture? – don’t miss the release party at Sunnyvale on that same night. – Cameron Carr

On April 19th of 1943, Albert Hofman became the first person to take LSD (and also the first to do so while riding a bike.) 65 years later, Boston-based singer-songwriter Anthony Graziano released a song about it. The debut single “Bicycle Day” (streaming below) is a smooth and psychedelic lullaby, with lyrics that fluctuate between entrancing and eerie (“The roads were winding and the buildings seem tall / As if nothing was real at all / Paranoia has me question my health / Am I dying? Did I poison myself? I guess I’ll see.”) A debut EP by the artist is still forthcoming, but Graziano is definitely one to watch. – Lilly Milman